eGovernment indicators for benchmarking eEurope

22 February 2001

The Lisbon summit in March 2000 established an ‘open method of co-ordination’ to
reach the targets in the eEurope Action Plan. This includes establishing quantitative
and qualitative indicators for benchmarking. On 1 December 2000, the Council
(Internal Market) adopted a set of 23 indicators for the benchmarking of eEurope.
These indicators were spelled out in the French Presidency's paper on implementing
the eEurope Action Plan (13515/00).

In establishing indicators for eGovernment, the approach taken is to focus on the demand side, i.e. the bottom-up reality of citizens' and businesses’ contacts with government. The key is the take-up of the services, regardless of by what body or at what level of government these are delivered. A distinction is made between services for citizens and for businesses.At the meeting of the eGovernment working group on 15 December 2000, it was agreed that Member States should present lists of the 25 main public services to citizens and businesses. On the basis of the replies and the discussions at the meeting of the group on 12 February, a list of 20 basic public services is proposed, 12 for citizens and 8 for businesses. The services are not listed in order of importance.The draft list of basic public services is attached to this document.